


The Love of Ianto's Life

by DinoDina



Category: Torchwood
Genre: Established Relationship, Ianto's Coffee Machine, M/M, Valentine's Day
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-18
Packaged: 2021-03-14 04:00:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,415
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29536482
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DinoDina/pseuds/DinoDina
Summary: Something dramatic always happens on Valentine's Day.
Relationships: Jack Harkness/Ianto Jones
Comments: 10
Kudos: 27





	The Love of Ianto's Life

**Author's Note:**

> for princess-of-the-worlds from [this](https://dinodina.tumblr.com/post/642694180326506496/valentines-dayromance-prompts) prompt list for: "I don't even want to hear about Valentine's Day, okay? The love of my life is dead."

Sometimes, Jack saw Ianto with a cup of takeout coffee. A small paper cup, with "John" written on the side for some reason, and the look of bliss on Ianto's face whenever he took a sip was beautiful. It wasn't quite the satisfaction of drinking his own coffee—which was the best Jack had ever had, and he'd lived for a while—and it didn't happen often because Ianto preferred to sleep in and make his own cup at the Hub rather than stop by wherever he bought the coffee, but it was fantastic. It reminded Jack that Ianto had slivers of a life outside Torchwood.

As they got closer, Jack got to see those slivers. The kitschy Star Wars duvet Ianto kept in his linen closet and pretended he didn't take out. The take-out menus and receipts with phone numbers scrawled on them, because Ianto managed to endear himself to everyone he met. They didn't go out much, but Ianto, for all his awkwardness and inability to tell when he talked too much or too little, always attracted as many looks as Jack. Ianto never called his admirers and only smiled at them from afar when they tried to hit on him.

Jack felt as triumphant as Ianto did when they went home together after one of their dates. He hadn't done the dating scene for a long time, and it wasn't as scary as he'd feared.

Sure, Ianto was a Torchwood agent, which considerably lowered his already short life expectancy, and he was reckless on top of that. And sure, he was young and scared of intimacy, and it was so, so easy to fall into the trap of miscommunication—which Jack was just as guilty of—but at the end of the day, they fit together well.

Figuring out the intricacies of twenty-first century dating was fun to Jack. There had always been trips to the cinema and the museum, and simple restaurant dates as well, but just enough had changed over the years that he wasn't sure what to expect. Was it still smooth to yawn and place your arm over your partner's shoulder?

It worked on Ianto.

Jack got sappy, sometimes. He had lost a full five minutes of the day to smiling when Ianto had flowers delivered for him this morning.

Flowers! It seemed so out of Ianto's normal behavior, Jack didn't know what to think. _He_ was planning a dinner for later, complete with candles and a bouquet of red roses to decorate the table. It was Valentine's Day. That was something normal couples did. And they weren't all the way normal, but they were definitely a couple, and Torchwood could only derail the time of the celebration, not the spirit of it.

Which was exactly what happened. The Rift spit out malfunctioning tech that turned half of Cardiff pink, then rogue Weevils came out of the sewers into the madness and started chasing civilians. A second opening of the Rift cut the functioning of all alien technology in Cardiff, making the Hub work on backup backup generators, and cutting off all communications in the field.

Jack trusted his team. Not only were they all capable and trained, but they thought well on their feet and worked well together. They had all been vetted and chosen by Jack himself— _of course_ he trusted them. Not with his life, because that counted for very little in the long run, but with each other's.

And still, when they lost contact, Jack felt a chill run through him and ever letting them near Torchwood.

Jack had no one to look over at and exchange a terrified look with, and while that made him feel alone, it also reassured him—the team was paired up elsewhere, together if not _safe_.

At the end, when the crisis was over and Jack made his way to the Hub, hoping everyone else had made it out alright, he thought of contingencies. They'd gotten complacent, using alien tech for communication without considering an event like today's. No cell phones, no radios… The first thing he'd do, Jack decided, was give them a way to stay in touch if something like this ever happened again.

Jack didn't imagine what the Hub looked like before he got there, only knowing that it would be in disarray, but when he entered, it was much worse. Some things were knocked over, thrown from their places when the Rift energy surge caused them to stop working—one of Tosh's computers was shattered on the floor by her workstation—and the Hub was dark, the generator only powering essential tech. jack heard footsteps and muffled voices, but couldn't discern who it was; a flashlight moved in the distance, faint and almost peaceful—

"Fuck!"

It was Torchwood and far from peaceful, and yet the voice was like music to Jack's ears. He picked up his pace. "Ianto!"

"Figures," grumbled another voice—

"Owen!"

Jack skidded to a halt as Gwen and Tosh came into view. Their hair was disheveled and Tosh had a dash of dirt on one cheek, but they were all in one piece.

Gwen ran forward with a quick hug. "We couldn't get in touch with you—"

"So we figured you'd come back here," Tosh finished.

Jack nodded. "That's good. I wouldn't want you on the streets right now."

Gwen rolled her eyes but didn't otherwise comment. Jack looked past her, trying to find Owen and Ianto, who had gone suspiciously quiet. Tosh and Gwen exchanged a look and followed him towards where their voices had come from.

"It's not that bad!"

The false cheer in Owen's voice made Jack stop mid-step, and he exchanged a look with Tosh and Gwen. They shrugged. Clearly, Owen's behavior was... was that _compassion_? All the hints pointed to it, but Jack wanted to think that he'd know if something was _wrong_ in the Hub without such obvious signs.

"It's gone for good," Ianto's voice—sad and empty—replied.

And once more Owen replied in a way that could have been supportive if Jack didn't know that Owen was only supportive when there were no witnesses. "It's fine, Ianto. Jack can cheer you up later, it's Valentine's day." There was a pause. "Or at least get you another one."

"I don't even want to hear about Valentine's Day. The love of my life is dead." Jack arrived just in time to see him throw Owen an affronted look. "And it's not as simple as _getting another one_!"

"Oh, fuck." Owen turned his eyes skyward. "Dear lord, I didn't sign up for this."

"It's an _antique_! Out of circulation for fifty years! _Never_ , and I do mean _never_ —I worked in a coffee shop before Torchwood, I _know_ —have I ever seen a coffee machine that blends beans so finely while still preserving the integrity of the taste. The perfect water temperature, every time. It's never spurted out water, never stalled, never—"

"Because it was augmented with alien tech." Owen spoke as if to a child. "And what's this _never stalled_ business? It's never worked for me!"

"You just don't have the right touch."

"You—"

That was when Jack chose to step out of the shadows and grab Ianto's arm, because Owen and Ianto were now facing each other over the remains of the coffee machine, which… Jack hadn't known was alien. Maybe that was why it always made the best coffee. That, or Ianto's innate skill. It explained why Ianto's coffee was always better at the Hub than when he brought it in.

"Clean it up?" he said to Owen as he led Ianto away from confrontation.

"It's his birthday." Ianto pouted. "I wouldn't have actually hit him."

Jack wasn't quite sure of that, because when Owen and Ianto were sleep-deprived after a long day and wanted to avoid cleaning up, they tended to pick fights and stick with their original positions, but nodded nevertheless. He waited a second for Ianto to cool down some more, and spoke only when Ianto took a calming breath.

"Owen's right, you know." Ianto stepped away and opened his mouth to argue, but Jack beat him to it. "I'll try to fix the coffee machine."

Ianto flushed when Jack laughed at his quick response, still running on adrenaline. "Sorry."

"What'd you think I was going to do?" Jack grabbed his hand again, and this time Ianto hung on. "Let you spend Valentine's Day without the love of your life?"


End file.
